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  • Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003): Archetypal Analysis — The Chariot Polarity Dilemma

    Released in 2003, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl quickly established itself as a modern adventure classic — lighthearted, witty, and endlessly rewatchable. Its charm lies in how effortlessly it blends spectacle, humor, and sincerity, allowing the story to feel meaningful without ever becoming heavy or self-important.

    The curse

    A brief but important observation about the curse sets the tone for this analysis. In the film, moonlight is said to reveal the curse, exposing the pirates as skeletal and damned. Archetypally, however, the Moon conceals truth, while the Sun reveals it. From that perspective, the story mechanics slightly muddy the symbolic waters. The pirates should, archetypally speaking, resort to moonlight to hide their curse, not to reveal it. This choice does not break the film, but it signals that archetypal precision occasionally gives way to visual clarity.

    At the same time, the curse itself is conceptually well grounded. Those who steal create an illusion of wealth, and what arises from illusion cannot be enjoyed properly. The gold promises abundance but delivers emptiness; the feast satisfies hunger but provides no nourishment. This is a clean Emperor-Strength-Moon construction: forced action produces false reward. In that sense, while the lighting logic of the curse is confused, its moral and archetypal foundation is sound.

    The analysis

    This analysis approaches the film through a reinterpreted Major Arcana framework influenced by the Law of One, where archetypes are understood as inner processes rather than character labels. The goal is not to fault the story for its shortcuts, but to understand why it works so well despite them — and what it reveals about growth, polarity, and responsibility.

    The focus will be placed primarily on Will Turner and Jack Sparrow. Will carries a service-to-others arc that moves toward integration, while Jack embodies a far more ambiguous, service-to-self momentum that resists resolution. By tracing how archetypes manifest, overlap, or remain incomplete across these two figures, we can better understand both the film’s enduring appeal and the archetypal compromises that make that appeal possible.

    With that framing in place, we now turn to the archetypes themselves, following their sequence to see where they are embodied, deferred, or deliberately avoided — and why those choices matter.

    Major arcana archetypes in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

    The Magician — self-awareness, potential, talent, and will ✅

    Will’s introduction makes him an obvious Magician. He is capable, disciplined, and able to create beautiful swords, clearly demonstrating latent potential and conscious will. His craft expresses who he is before the world ever tests him.

    Jack’s introduction — arriving at the port aboard a sinking boat — also places him in the Magician archetype. In fact, it almost place him in the Chariot straight away. He displays awareness, adaptability, and mastery of circumstance from the very first moment. His early actions and feats suggest a Magician who already knows the trick.

    However, Jack is archetypally dubious. He appears to operate in a Service-to-Self–oriented Chariot from the beginning. The Chariot implies reclaimed intuition and foresight, allowing one to move through life fluidly and effortlessly. Yet here’s the dilemma: to sustain Chariot momentum, one must choose a polarity and release the other, since unresolved polarity creates drag. Jack is clearly service-to-self oriented, but he still shows a heart for others: he saves Elizabeth from drowning and is capable of truthfulness at key moments. These are qualities of the service-to-others polarity. Jack therefore appears underpolarized, but an underpolarized Chariot cannot truly exist. Rather than fully embodying the Chariot, he therefore seems to be standing somewhere near the crossroads of the Two Paths.

    The Devil — adversary to the Magician, nothingness ✅

    Will’s social status acts as a persistent adversary, limiting his options and provoking opposition from others. This reduction of possibility functions as the Devil archetype, constraining the Magician’s light.

    On a larger scale, the cursed pirates of the Black Pearl oppose the city itself and threaten Will’s love, Elizabeth. Their siege of Port Royal embodies a direct negation of safety and meaning.

    From Jack’s perspective, the entire government acts as the Devil. As a pirate, he is opposed by institutional authority, captured, and imprisoned. For him, law and order function not as protection but as negation.

    Justice — balancing good and bad, free will, and confusion ✅

    The sense that the Magician’s light must be balanced runs deep within the subconscious. This balancing pressure is Justice, which creates free will by forcing individuals to choose their own path. That freedom, however, often manifests as confusion, since competing inner voices pull in different directions.

    Will is clearly confused about what to do with his love for Elizabeth, yet he ultimately exercises free will by choosing to go after her.

    Jack also appears confused at times, but his confusion is largely performed ambiguity rather than true indecision. It is a mask, not a dilemma.

    The Hermit — isolation, separation, wisdom, individuality ✅

    Will lives and works largely alone, giving him the qualities of a quiet loner. His isolation is emotional and social rather than physical.

    Jack’s destiny similarly pushes him into solitude. He has acted alone for a long time and developed considerable wisdom through that independence. His imprisonment amplifies the Hermit archetype, though in his case it deepens perspective rather than producing growth.

    The High Priestess — object of inspiration, unformed potential, mystery ✅

    Elizabeth Swann functions as the High Priestess of the story. Will, Commodore Norrington, and even Barbossa to some extent project inspiration onto her.

    Will’s pirate lineage also presents a mystery to Elizabeth, placing him partially in the Priestess role from her perspective.

    For the audience, the Black Pearl and its cursed crew embody High Priestess energy as well — a hidden truth that demands revelation.

    The Lightning — sudden revelation, inspiration ❌

    There is no sudden revelation that shatters identity or redirects the story’s course. Will is already enchanted by Elizabeth from the beginning.

    The pirates’ sudden attack on Port Royal aligns more closely with the Devil than with the Lightning or Tower archetype. It threatens stability but does not transform identity.

    The Star — hope, wayshower, faith, confidence ✅

    Elizabeth functions as the Star for Will. She gives direction to his actions and sustains his hope. Her abduction wounds him deeply and crystallizes his resolve to act.

    The Empress — inflated ego, overconfidence, narcissism ❓

    No character’s ego inflates dramatically. However, there is a brief moment when Will and Jack steal a ship from the Royal Navy and discuss Will’s pirate past. Will denies his origins and wants to be something he is not. For a moment, he appears slightly puffed up and overconfident. This behavior fits loosely within the Empress archetype, though only mildly and temporarily.

    The Wheel of Fortune — ups and downs, embarrassment ✅

    Will’s overconfidence on the ship and refusal to acknowledge his pirate heritage lead to embarrassment. Jack humiliates him by hanging him from the boom over the sea, decisively deflating his ego. This is a clean Wheel of Fortune moment.

    The Emperor — control, agenda, discipline ✅

    By convincing Jack to pursue Elizabeth, Will flirts with the Emperor archetype. He develops an agenda, but he lacks the discipline, aggression, and authority to fully embody it. Jack, as captain of a newly assembled crew, also remains too informal to serve as a strong Emperor.

    However, proper Emperors do exist in the story. Barbossa represents tyrannical authority, while Commodore Norrington and Governor Swann embody institutional and paternal authority.

    Strength — force, aggression, manipulation, lying ✅

    Before the heart opens, goals are pursued through force. Barbossa abducts Elizabeth against her will in an attempt to lift the curse.

    Will and Jack do not initially rely on Strength to save Elizabeth, but once ships engage broadside, force becomes unavoidable. Cannons fire, swords are drawn, and physical power dominates.

    The Moon — twilight and illusion ✅

    Will does not know that Elizabeth stole his pirate pendant as a child, believing it lost. The true nature of the Black Pearl’s curse remains mysterious for much of the story.

    The cursed pirates also operate under illusion, falsely believing Elizabeth to be the offspring of their former crewmate Bootstrap Bill.

    The Hierophant — introspection, truth revealed ✅

    Barbossa prematurely reveals the truth of the curse to Elizabeth. Later, when Elizabeth’s blood fails to lift the curse, the pirates realize a deeper truth is required. Jack finally clarifies that Will’s blood is needed.

    The Hanged Man — suspension, failed perspective ❓

    When Elizabeth’s blood fails, the pirates are briefly left hanging, forced to reassess their assumptions. However, this suspension is short-lived, as Jack quickly provides the missing insight. The archetype appears, but only partially.

    The Sun — sincerity, heart-to-heart truth ✅

    After Will rescues Elizabeth from the cave, they share a sincere moment. Elizabeth explains why she stole the pendant and asks for forgiveness. Will realizes that the pirates need his blood. Truth emerges through openness rather than conflict.

    The Two Paths (Lovers) — choice and determination ✅

    Will first shows determination when he offers himself to Barbossa in exchange for Elizabeth’s freedom, even risking execution. This act does not feel fully archetypal and borders on recklessness rather than conscious choice.

    Later, his determination matures as he works with Jack, saves him from the gallows, and admits his love to Elizabeth.

    Jack’s determination, by contrast, centers on manipulating both pirates and navy to reclaim the Black Pearl, which symbolizes freedom.

    The Chariot — momentum, intuition ✅

    During the final battle in the cave, Will and Jack intuitively lift the curse at precisely the right moment, allowing the pirates to be defeated. This sequence clearly feels like Chariot momentum: swift action, foresight, and alignment under pressure.

    Yet true Chariot alignment should follow ego defeat, forgiveness, or the taking of responsibility — and neither character has fully achieved that at this point. What we see here is therefore a functional but not integrative Chariot.

    A second attempt at the Chariot appears later. After Will admits his love to Elizabeth — an act that implies ego death through the surrender of fear — he and Jack once again move with Chariot-like swiftness while fighting the Royal Guards. This time they are ultimately surrounded, but Elizabeth comes to the rescue, implying assistance from the World, which is not uncommon once Chariot momentum begins to stabilize.

    Death — ego dissolution and responsibility ✅

    Will’s rescue of Jack from the gallows symbolizes collective forgiveness. Forgiveness is an action against ego. Will also acts without fear of consequence, suggesting fear itself has died within him.

    His admission of love to Elizabeth similarly represents the death of the fear that restrained him.

    Judgement / Resurrection — being seen and reborn ✅

    Will is judged publicly when he frees Jack, yet he remains fearless. He is also judged by Norrington when he confesses his love for Elizabeth. In both cases, Will withstands judgement and emerges spiritually renewed.

    The World — reconnection and wholeness ✅

    After ego transcendence, the world responds. Elizabeth intervenes at the gallows. Will is united with Elizabeth in love despite his pirate nature. Jack is reunited with his crew. Integration occurs relationally rather than individually.

    Temperance — ordinary life and ease ✅

    Jack escapes the Royal Guard one final time and rises from the water in a moment of near-magical grace. He returns to the helm of the Black Pearl, wiser and more balanced. Ease replaces struggle.

    Closing reflections

    Stepping back from the full sequence, it becomes clear that Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl accounts for nearly all major archetypal movements, even if some of them appear in unconventional order or are distributed across characters. Most notably, Will’s arc does culminate in a functional and meaningful Chariot–World combination. After surrendering fear through his admission of love and acting without regard for personal consequence, he moves with clarity, momentum, and alignment. When Elizabeth intervenes at the gallows, the World responds to that alignment, offering support and reunion rather than resistance. Integration is achieved relationally rather than through authority.

    What remains conspicuously absent from Will’s journey is a proper passage through the Emperor. He never establishes control, structure, or governance over a domain. Instead, his growth bypasses authority and moves directly from moral choice into action and reconciliation. This omission does not break the story, but it explains its tone: the film is not interested in order being restored, only in freedom being reclaimed. Authority remains fragmented, outdated, or intentionally sidestepped.

    Jack Sparrow, meanwhile, never undergoes a traditional growth arc at all. He does not pass through Death, nor does he stabilize into the World. His archetypal function is different. Jack operates as a destabilizing agent — clever, intuitive, and underpolarized — whose near-Chariot momentum keeps the story in motion without demanding resolution from him personally. He is not meant to integrate; he is meant to disrupt false authority and expose rigidity. In a story driven by adventure rather than transformation, this makes him the perfect catalyst.

    Ultimately, Pirates of the Caribbean works not because it resolves every archetype cleanly, but because it resolves the right ones. By allowing Will to complete Chariot and World without insisting on Emperor, and by letting Jack remain archetypally ambiguous, the film preserves lightness, speed, and charm. The result is a story that may be structurally imperfect, yet endlessly rewatchable — a modern classic that understands that not every journey must end in control, as long as it ends in freedom.

    Thanks,

    Ira

  • Ratatouille (2007): An Archetypal Analysis — One of Cinema’s Most Compelling Ego Transcendences

    Released in 2007, Ratatouille is often remembered as a charming Pixar film about an unlikely hero, exquisite food, and Parisian romance. On the surface, it is lighthearted and accessible, yet its ending touches us in ways that surprisingly few stories manage to do. There is a quiet sense of resolution, warmth, and truth that lingers after the final scene — not because everything is perfect, but because something essential has been acknowledged.

    This analysis approaches Ratatouille through a reinterpreted Major Arcana framework, where archetypes are understood not as fixed symbols or character labels, but as inner processes and transitions that unfold — or fail to unfold — through story. By tracing how these archetypal movements appear across different characters, we can learn not only about storytelling mechanics, but also about growth, responsibility, and the ways identity is formed, protected, or surrendered. Such an approach often reveals why a story works emotionally even when its structure is uneven, and where small shifts might have made it even stronger.

    What quickly becomes interesting in Ratatouille is that its emotional payoff does not align neatly with its protagonists’ arcs. One character reaches momentum almost immediately, another never fully completes surrender, and yet the film still lands with remarkable precision. The reason lies elsewhere — in how archetypal weight is distributed, and in whose transformation ultimately carries the story’s resolution.

    With that in mind, we now turn to the individual archetypes as they appear throughout the film, following their sequence to see where they are embodied, deferred, transferred, or quietly avoided.👨‍🍳🐀

    Major arcana archetypes in Ratatouille

    The Magician — self-awareness, potential (talent), and will ✅

    Remy clearly possesses potential and talent. He has an exquisite sense of smell for food and a natural flow of ideas about how ingredients could be prepared and combined. This places him firmly in the Magician archetype: self-aware, capable, and already oriented toward expression, even if that expression is not yet legitimized.

    The Devil — adversary to the Magician, nothingness ✅

    Remy’s father embodies the Devil archetype as an adversary to meaning. He doubts Remy, believes that food is merely fuel, and reduces Remy’s gift to a utilitarian function — detecting rat poison. Talent is not denied outright, but stripped of purpose. In this way, meaning is flattened into survival, and creative will is constrained.

    Justice — balancing good and bad, free will, confusion ✅

    Justice operates here as a deep subconscious pressure rather than an external force. The idea that wishes and desires must be balanced reflects the Law of Free Will or Confusion. No one can decide Remy’s path for him. He must determine for himself what he wants to do with his life and how he will relate to his gift.

    The High Priestess — object of inspiration, mystery ✅

    Chef Gusteau functions as an object of inspiration rather than a guide. To Remy, he represents mystery, possibility, and an idealized vision of what cooking could be. At this stage, Gusteau is not instruction but projection — something to aspire toward without yet understanding how or whether it can be embodied.

    The Lightning — rapid revelation, inspiration / idea ❓

    We never see a moment where Remy is suddenly inspired to become a cook. That desire exists from the beginning. However, there is a symbolic Lightning moment when Remy has a sudden insight about how to prepare a dish using the ingredients he has gathered — a moment emphasized by him being literally struck by lightning. This is not life reorientation, but localized revelation: an idea applied, not an identity transformed.

    The Hermit — isolation, loneliness, wisdom, individuality ✅

    The Hermit emerges after the evacuation, when the rats are flushed from the attic and swept into the sewer system. Remy becomes separated from his family and forced into solitude. This isolation is not chosen but imposed, and it deepens his individuality. Wisdom begins to grow, but without social legitimacy or support.

    The Star — hope and wayshower, faith, confidence ✅

    Interpreted as imagination rather than apparition, Gusteau functions as a lingering Star. He is a memory of inspiration that sustains Remy through doubt and loneliness. This presence offers reassurance and faith, but not authority. Importantly, the Star must eventually dissolve so that authorship can become fully Remy’s own.

    The Empress — inflated ego, overconfidence ✅

    Remy’s ego never inflates into overconfidence. His confidence appears grounded and proportional from the start. Because of this, the Empress archetype — defined here as inflated self-definition through premature production — is not carried by Remy.

    Instead, the archetypal baton is passed to Linguini, a new staff member at Gusteau’s restaurant. Linguini spills half the soup, cannot admit the mistake, and becomes overconfident that he can secretly repair it. Despite his timid and insecure persona, this moment reveals an inflated belief in authorship without competence.

    The Wheel of Fortune — ups and downs, embarrassment ❓

    Ordinarily, Linguini should crash and burn at this point. Instead, Remy intervenes and fixes the soup at the last second. The Wheel of Fortune is therefore externally stabilized rather than integrated. Random consequence is postponed rather than endured. Linguini is still yelled at by the chef for even attempting to cook, but the deeper humiliation that would force transformation is deferred.

    The Emperor — control, agenda, discipline ❓

    As the narrative progresses, Linguini moves into a soft Emperor position. He begins to contemplate how Remy could be used to help him cook and develops an agenda. However, he does not force Remy into cooperation and still respects his free will. As a result, this Emperor is gentle and insecure — an agenda without full authority or discipline.

    Strength — effort, aggression, manipulation, lying, cheating ✅

    Strength manifests as effort without alignment. Linguini pretends he can cook while being secretly helped by Remy under his hat. This is compensation for a lack of truth. Power is generated through manipulation and sustained exertion rather than integrity.

    The Moon — twilight and illusion ✅

    The results of manipulation, lies, and cheating are always short-lived, and therefore illusory. Linguini creates a false reality — a twilight state — in which he receives credit for something he did not do. This illusion extends beyond Linguini. The rats, led by Remy’s father, also live under a Moon belief that humans are universally hostile and dangerous.

    The Hierophant — introspection, truth revealed, surfaced ✅

    Eventually, the pressure of falsehood becomes unbearable. Linguini nearly confesses to Colette but is derailed by Remy. Soon after, Chef Skinner independently discovers that Linguini has a rat helper. Finally, Linguini is forced to admit the truth in front of the entire staff.

    At the same time, when Linguini protects Remy, the rats are confronted with evidence that not all humans are enemies. Truth surfaces across multiple layers of the story.

    The Hanged Man — illusions crash, action is suspended, new viewpoints ✅

    Once Linguini admits that he has no talent of his own, the staff walks out. His constructed reality collapses, and action is suspended. He is forced to see his situation clearly: the business he built was based on illusion, and it can no longer be sustained.

    The Sun — heart to heart, sincerity ✅

    In a moment of sincerity, Linguini and Colette admit to Ego that it was Remy who cooked the dish he loved. Ego’s review of the restaurant is equally sincere. This is a heart-to-heart exchange, but not yet a final resolution.

    The Two Paths (Lovers) — choice, determination ❓

    Remy shows determination early on when he fixes Linguini’s soup despite doubt and fear, encouraged by Gusteau’s imagined presence. Later, his determination intensifies as he learns to control Linguini from under his hat, enduring continuous struggle.

    However, this determination still exists under confusion. It feels less like a resolved choice and more like persistence driven by vision rather than clarity.

    The Chariot — uninhibitedness, intuition, foresight ✅

    Remy’s cooking and his ability to guide Linguini become fluid and intuitive. He moves freely through the kitchen, seemingly uninhibited. That this occurs in the middle of Linguini’s lie is not Remy’s fault, but a consequence of the structure in which his skill is being used.

    Death — killing of the ego, taking responsibility ❓

    When Linguini admits who is truly behind the cooking, his ego is wounded. Yet his expression reflects desperation and grief more than remorse or humility. Full responsibility is not entirely taken.

    By contrast, Remy’s father Django admits that he was wrong about humans. This moment more closely resembles true ego death — a relinquishment of identity in favor of truth.

    Judgement / Resurrection — being judged, rebirth ❓

    The ending revolves around judgement from the food critic. Linguini does not display complete fearlessness in the face of judgement; there is still tension and uncertainty. Rebirth occurs, but it is partial and cautious rather than absolute.

    The World — reconnection with others and the divine ❓

    Remy stays true to himself, even trusting humans when his father does not. As a result, he receives help from the entire rat pack. Linguini gets the girl, suggesting that he has become truer to himself and the world, though lingering issues — such as the health inspection — hint that integration is not complete.

    Temperance — ordinary life, but happier and wiser ✅

    The grand restaurant closes, and the story settles into a smaller, humbler setting. Ego, Colette, Linguini, and Remy cooperate in an ordinary life marked by balance and grace. There is no spectacle, only a quieter, wiser equilibrium.

    Closing reflections

    Looking at the full structure, it becomes clear that Remy’s arc is relatively small. He enters the story with awareness, talent, and direction already in place, reaching Chariot-like execution quickly. His struggle is not about discovering who he is, but about where and how that identity is allowed to exist. As a result, Remy functions less as a transforming protagonist and more as a stabilizing force whose alignment exposes the instability of the system around him.

    Linguini’s arc, on the other hand, remains incomplete. He lacks strong inner motivation early on and never fully develops the determination that should follow a clean Death archetype. His confession wounds his ego, but the emotional tone leans more toward desperation and grief than humility and responsibility. Still, the film symbolically places him on skates at the end, quietly suggesting a Chariot that ought to follow proper surrender — even if that surrender has not been fully earned.

    The revelation that Linguini is Gusteau’s son gains unexpected archetypal weight here. While it may appear narratively minor, it dramatically raises the stakes of his confession. Lineage could have justified the lie retroactively, allowing talent to be assumed rather than earned. That Linguini admits he has no talent despite this validation gives the moment real substance, as he relinquishes not only status but inherited legitimacy.

    Ultimately, the film does not require fully polished arcs from Remy or Linguini to reach its climax because the true resolution belongs to Ego. The story is built around a precise inversion: the most rigid food critic is transformed by the most unlikely member of the kitchen imaginable. That his name is literally Ego is no accident. His quiet surrender to memory, vulnerability, and sincerity represents the film’s deepest archetypal completion — a rare and elegant portrayal of ego transcendence achieved not through confrontation, but through nourishment.

    In this way, Ratatouille resolves not by perfecting its heroes, but by dissolving resistance. And that may be why, despite structural shortcuts and incomplete integrations, the story still feels whole when it ends.

    Thanks,

    Ira

  • Crazy, Stupid, Love (2011): An Archetypal Analysis — A Funny Climax at the Expense of Clean Arcs

    Crazy, Stupid, Love. is one of those films that almost everyone remembers as fun. It has a charismatic cast, sharp dialogue, memorable scenes, and a fast pace that keeps things moving. On the surface, it feels clever, heartfelt, and emotionally generous. At the same time, it has a reputation for being messy — not in a sloppy sense, but in a way that feels intentionally chaotic, as if several different stories were allowed to collide without ever fully aligning.

    That tension makes it an especially interesting candidate for archetypal analysis. In this article, we’ll look at Crazy, Stupid, Love through the lens of the reinterpreted Major Arcana — not to judge the characters morally, but to examine how psychological and existential processes are (or are not) allowed to unfold. Archetypes here are treated as inner transitions rather than labels, helping us understand why some moments feel authentic, while others feel oddly unearned or exaggerated.

    Because the film doesn’t follow a single protagonist arc, the analysis has to reflect that structure. Crazy, Stupid, Love weaves together several parallel storylines, each carrying its own partial journey. We will therefore examine the archetypal paths of Cal, Jacob, Hannah, and Robbie separately, noting where each arc advances, regresses, or skips essential transitions.

    What quickly emerges is that the film doesn’t tell one complete story, but several incomplete ones. Some characters begin mid-arc, others avoid falling deeply enough to transform, and a few are structurally protected because the comedy needs them intact. As a result, growth is often implied rather than earned, momentum replaces surrender, and emotional payoffs arrive before their groundwork is complete. With that framing in place, we can now move through the major archetypes as they appear across these four intertwined arcs, and see what this charmingly chaotic movie accidentally reveals about storytelling — and about us.

    Major Archetypes in Cal’s Story

    The Hanged Man — illusions crash, action is suspended, new viewpoints ✅

    Cal actually starts in the Hanged Man. After hearing that his wife Emily wants a divorce, he is devastated. He even jumps out of a moving car. His life is abruptly turned upside down, and he is forced to move out, losing both stability and orientation.

    Since the Hierophant archetype supersedes the Emperor, we can assume that Emily was tired of Emperor-like rigidity and insincerity. That Emperor energy could have belonged to her, to Cal, or to the dynamic between them.

    The Hierophant — introspection, truth revealed, surfaced ❓

    Cal is seen drinking alone in a pub. This is not the Hermit, but the Hierophant phase beginning. It is time for introspection, a moment when he should be finding his truth and reorienting himself.

    However, while introspection is clearly in play, its results are missing. Cal never tells us what he learns. No conclusions are articulated, and no internal truth is clearly surfaced.

    The Star — hope and wayshower, faith, confidence ✅

    The idea of reunion with Emily becomes Cal’s Star. The love he still sees in her motivates him to search for his “best self” and gives him hope. This projected future is the reason he eventually builds confidence, even if that confidence is not yet grounded.

    The Emperor — control, agenda, discipline ✅

    Jacob drags Cal into the Emperor way of thinking: doing something about misery, taking control, getting his “luck under control.”

    Since the Emperor precedes the Hierophant, this is archetypal regression. Emperor rigidity and control may even be what contributed to the end of Cal’s marriage in the first place, making this return especially problematic.

    Strength — effort, aggression, manipulation, lying ✅

    Cal begins resorting to “moves” and pickup lines to get women to like him. This is effort-based strength rather than integrated strength.

    Later, when he prepares a big romantic speech for a blindfolded Emily in her backyard, the act again feels manipulative. It is staged, controlled, and unilateral.

    The Moon — twilight and illusion ✅

    At one point, Cal admits he slept with nine women after separating from Emily. However, he is clearly still grieving. In that emotional state, other women should not realistically be drawn to him. These encounters therefore feel illusory.

    More broadly, reliance on pickup lines and manipulation techniques produces only short-lived results. True love can only return after ego transcendence, which belongs much later in the World archetype.

    The Sun — heart to heart, sincerity ✅

    Before the parent–teacher meeting, Cal admits to Emily that he misses her. He is sincere and comes close to reconciling with her.

    ❗However, the story treats this as a false win trope, since Cal is still sleeping with other women at the time and does not tell Emily. This omission has little to do with their original fallout and undermines the sincerity of the moment.

    The Two Paths (Lovers) — choice for good/bad, determination ✅

    At Robbie’s middle school graduation, Cal appears determined to oppose Robbie’s cynical view of love and takes over his speech. He publicly expresses his love for Emily as if that were the missing key.

    ❗However, the film never established that Emily wanted a divorce because Cal failed to express love. The choice is presented as decisive, but its premise is weak.

    Death — killing of the ego ✅

    We never see true ego humbling regarding Cal and Emily’s breakup. Sleeping with other women does not count.

    However, when Cal finally softens his stance toward Hannah and Jacob and implicitly approves their relationship, a genuine ego transcendence occurs — though it is secondary in importance and not tied to his main arc.

    The World — reconnection with others and the divine ✅

    Cal and Emily appear reconnected in the final scene, though the foundation of that reconnection remains largely emotional rather than archetypal.

    Temperance — ordinary life, but happier / wiser ✅

    The final atmosphere is calm and moderate. Life appears stabilized, even if deeper integration remains questionable.

    Major Archetypes in Jacob’s Story

    The Emperor — control, agenda, discipline, patronization ✅

    At first glance, Jacob could be placed in the Chariot or even the World archetype. His life seems effortless, he is socially successful, and he appears respectful of others’ free will, especially when first meeting Hannah.

    However, he relies heavily on pickup lines, admits to using a “big move” borrowed from Dirty Dancing, and actively disciplines Cal into becoming a “better man.” These are clear markers of Emperor energy.

    The High Priestess — object of inspiration, unformed potential, mystery ✅

    Jacob clearly perceives Hannah as the High Priestess — a figure of mystery and possibility who disrupts his established patterns.

    Strength — effort, aggression, manipulation, lying ✅

    Before the heart is open, the Emperor uses strength manipulatively. Jacob’s methods of seduction, while smooth, remain technique-based and borderline manipulative.

    The Moon — twilight and illusion ❌

    Because his relationships are built on manipulation, their results are short-lived and illusory. Jacob must constantly return for new escapades.

    The same applies to his work with Cal — its effects should also be temporary. ❗However, since Cal appears to succeed with Jacob’s method, this illusory nature is not consistently presented.

    The Hierophant — introspection, truth revealed, surfaced ✅

    Hannah pushes Jacob into admitting his “big move,” effectively acting as the Hierophant and forcing truth to the surface.

    The Hanged Man — illusions crash, action is suspended ❌

    After meeting Hannah, who sees straight through him, Jacob should experience a deeper collapse of identity and a suspension of action. That reckoning never fully happens.

    The Sun — heart to heart, sincerity ✅

    Instead of sleeping together, Hannah and Jacob spend the evening talking and opening up. This moment is sincere and emotionally grounded.

    The Two Paths (Lovers) — choice for good/bad, determination ✅

    Jacob chooses to leave his womanizer identity behind and commits to Hannah, at least symbolically.

    Death — killing of the ego, taking responsibility ❓

    Jacob gestures toward remorse for his former lifestyle and for teaching Cal questionable methods. However, this apology feels half-hearted and incomplete.

    The World — reconnection with others and the divine ✅

    Jacob’s testimony appears sufficient for Cal to approve his relationship with Hannah. Yet the fact that Jacob is symbolically patronized and slapped by Cal suggests his ego may not be fully transcended.

    Major Archetypes in Hannah’s Story

    The Empress — inflated ego, overconfidence, being special ✅

    Although Hannah is mature enough to see through Jacob early on, she still carries remnants of the Empress archetype. She believes she is special enough that her coworker Richard will propose to her.

    The Wheel of Fortune — ups and downs, embarrassment ✅

    Richard’s failure to propose leads to Hannah’s complete embarrassment. This reveals that she was living in illusion, and reality responds by grounding her through the Wheel of Fortune.

    The Emperor — control, agenda, discipline ✅

    After embarrassment, the archetypal sequence moves naturally into the Emperor. Hannah attempts to take control of her situation rather than surrender to it.

    Strength — aggression, manipulation, seduction ✅

    Hannah seeks out Jacob for a rebound encounter and attempts to seduce him. It works, but the act is effort-based and reactive.

    The Moon — twilight and illusion ❌

    This rebound strategy could only produce temporary results and would normally require repentance or correction. The film skips that entirely and pivots straight into sincerity.

    The Hanged Man — suspension and reckoning ❌

    Hannah never experiences the consequences of her reckless actions. The story bypasses suspension and introspection and moves directly into emotional resolution.

    The Sun — heart to heart, sincerity ✅

    Hannah and Jacob spend the evening talking openly rather than having sex. This moment is genuine and emotionally clear.

    Death — killing of the ego ❌

    Hannah never apologizes for the rebound encounter and never redeems her relationship with Richard. Ego surrender does not occur.

    The World — reconnection with others and the divine ✅

    Hannah ends up with Jacob regardless, and he appears content and committed to her.

    Major Archetypes in Robbie’s Story

    The Empress — inflated ego, overconfidence, infatuation ✅

    Robbie begins in the Empress, infatuated with the babysitter Jessica. His attraction is intense and adolescent, bordering on obsession.

    The Wheel of Fortune — embarrassment and frustration ✅

    Repeated rejection grounds him. His frustration surfaces publicly during his English class.

    The Emperor — control, agenda, discipline ✅

    Robbie decides to take control and bend reality to his will. He plans a public gesture designed to force resolution.

    Strength — pressure, guilt-tripping ✅

    Robbie applies public pressure by declaring his love in front of the school. Even if this worked, the result would be temporary.

    In his final speech, he again attempts to guilt Jessica into reciprocation, treating love as something repetition can solve.

    The Star — hope and wayshower ✅

    At the end, Robbie reconnects with Jessica. She gives him nude photographs of herself — a gift that reflects the stage of growth he is actually at.

    This gesture functions as a Star: it gives Robbie hope and points toward a future version of confidence and integration he has not yet reached.

    Closing reflections

    Crazy, Stupid, Love is, thanks to its colorful cast and energetic pacing, undeniably fun to watch. It charms easily on a first pass. But once we slow down and untangle the narrative threads, something important becomes visible. Beneath the surface, the stories themselves begin to feel strangely implausible. Reality simply doesn’t operate in the way the film presents it.

    Cal would not suddenly become irresistible to nine different women while still in the middle of unresolved grief over Emily. Hannah would not walk away unscathed from a drunken rebound with Jacob; that kind of choice normally carries consequences, yet the story protects her because it “needs” a grounded character and refuses to let her arc fall deeply. Jacob, meanwhile, would hardly be so effortlessly attractive while still operating from an Emperor mindset of control and technique rather than genuine surrender. Even Robbie’s infatuation, and Jessica’s partial reward of it, stretches credibility once examined closely. Not to mention Jessica’s infatuation with Cal.

    Seen this way, the film’s intention becomes clearer. The narrative bends realism not to explore growth, but to serve a chaotic, crowd-pleasing climax where secrets spill, identities collide, and everyone quite literally ends up throwing punches. That messiness is not accidental — it’s the engine of the comedy. Crazy, Stupid, Love works because it prioritizes momentum, coincidence, and emotional spectacle over archetypal coherence. And while that makes for an entertaining finale, it also explains why the story feels charming, funny… and structurally unresolved once you look a little closer.

    Thank you,

    Ira

  • School of Rock (2003): An Archetypal Analysis — A Near-Perfect Arc That Starts in the Empress

    Released in 2003, School of Rock is one of those rare movies that simply feels right. It’s lighthearted, energetic, and endlessly rewatchable. Beneath the humor and music there is a sense of balance that many films never quite achieve. You may not immediately know why it works so well, but you can feel that nothing is forced, rushed, or falsely inflated. The joy at the end feels earned.

    That quiet sense of rightness makes School of Rock a perfect candidate for archetypal analysis. In this article, we’ll look at the story through a reinterpreted Major Arcana framework — not as a system of symbols or labels, but as a sequence of inner processes that unfold through narrative. This approach allows us to learn several things at once: how the Major Arcana operate beneath storytelling, how character growth is structured, where stories sometimes falter or could be improved, and how these same archetypal movements mirror processes in our own lives.

    The Major Arcana form the connective tissue between fictional stories and real ones. They describe how people move through ego inflation, collapse, isolation, deception, responsibility, surrender, and reintegration — whether that journey unfolds on a stage, in a classroom, or in everyday life. When a story respects these processes, even unconsciously, it resonates in a way that feels natural and complete.

    One of the most interesting findings in School of Rock is just how close it comes to a fully self-contained protagonist arc. Dewey Finn carries nearly the entire archetypal sequence himself, from ego inflation to genuine integration. The only notable assistance comes at the moment of determination, where the children briefly carry that energy for him — a rare and subtle deviation that still supports, rather than undermines, the arc as a whole.

    With that framework in place, we can now walk through the archetypes as they appear throughout the film and see why School of Rock remains such a satisfying example of lighthearted storytelling done right.

    Major arcana archetypes in School of Rock

    The Empress — inflated ego, overconfidence ✅

    The movie actually starts in the Empress archetype. We first meet Dewey Finn rocking on stage, performing overzealous guitar solos on the verge of cringe, annoying even his own bandmates. His confidence is loud, uncontained, and self-referential — a classic case of inflated identity preceding grounding.

    The Wheel of Fortune — ups and downs, embarrassment ✅

    Dewey immediately discovers that he is not quite the rocker he thinks he is when he dives into the audience and slams straight onto the floor. The fantasy collapses in an instant.

    Soon after, the Wheel turns again and he is fired from his band, completing the rapid correction of Empress overconfidence.

    The Magician — self-awareness, potential and will ✅

    Dewey certainly has the will to chase his dreams, but the proper, uninspired Magician scene arrives the next day. He is sleeping on the floor of his friend Ned’s apartment. The records scattered around his makeshift bed symbolize raw Magician potential — talent, identity, creative power — but his opportunities to express it are clearly limited.

    The Devil — adversary to the Magician, nothingness ✅

    When Ned and Patty ask Dewey for rent money, we discover who the Devil is in his case. He is his own Devil. He has no money, which symbolically represents the Devil as nothingness — lack, blockage, and self-created limitation. There is no external force to blame here but himself.

    Justice — balancing good and bad, free will ✅

    The sense that light must be balanced runs deep in our subconsciousness. When magic is neutralized and brought into balance, ordinary and uneventful life emerges. Yet within that mundane world, free will becomes possible — the freedom to make one’s own decisions and to learn from one’s own mistakes.

    Dewey’s situation reflects this neutralized state: potential without direction, freedom without structure.

    The Hermit — isolation, loneliness, wisdom, individuality ✅

    Dewey feels completely alone in the world. To deepen this isolation, his friend Ned now has a girlfriend, Patty, and is no longer “rocking” with him. To push the loneliness even further, Patty wants Dewey out of the apartment. The Hermit here is not chosen solitude, but social and emotional displacement.

    The Emperor — control, agenda ✅

    Desperate to change his situation, Dewey attempts to control his circumstances by any means necessary. Even if it means bending reality to his will, he steps into the mindset of the Emperor, seeking order and authority without legitimacy.

    Strength — effort, aggression, manipulation, lying ✅

    Before Strength is properly integrated and used to deal with ego, the Emperor uses it in service of selfish agendas. What cannot be achieved through the heart is forced through action.

    Dewey resorts to manipulation and lies, impersonating his friend Ned in order to secure a temporary teaching job and earn money. This is unintegrated Strength in action.

    The Moon — twilight and illusion ✅

    Dewey has no teaching experience. Through his lie, he imposes a state of twilight over the entire school and his classroom. Roles are blurred, identities are false, and success is built on illusion.

    As always, the results of manipulation are short-lived and therefore illusory. The audience senses that the truth will surface sooner or later, giving the movie its underlying tension. Eventually, even the children participate in sustaining the illusion, pretending to be sick hospital patients to gain access to the competition.

    The High Priestess — object of inspiration, unformed potential, mystery ✅

    When Dewey notices that his students can already play instruments surprisingly well, he becomes genuinely inspired by them. The children represent unformed potential and mystery — the High Priestess archetype — waiting for a Magician who can help them express what already exists within them.

    The Lightning — rapid revelation, inspiration, idea ✅

    To become a rocker at all, Dewey must have experienced inspiration long before the events of the movie. However, within the story, a secondary Lightning moment occurs when he sees the children playing music. He becomes wide-eyed, as if struck by revelation, and immediately runs to the parking lot to retrieve instruments from his van.

    The Star — hope, wayshower, faith, confidence ✅

    Dewey is guided by the rocker’s ethos of “sticking it to the Man.” Within the film, this hope takes a concrete form: winning the Battle of the Bands, earning the $20,000 prize, and symbolically triumphing over his former band. This Star provides direction and confidence, though it is still partially tied to ego and fantasy.

    The Hierophant — introspection, truth revealed, surfaced ✅

    At one point, Dewey even admits to Principal Rosalie that he is not a real teacher, but a fraud. She dismisses the confession, and the truth remains submerged.

    The full surfacing arrives when Ned mistakenly receives Dewey’s paycheck, instantly connecting the dots. This revelation comes just one day before the big concert, escalating the stakes.

    Judgement / Resurrection — being judged, rebirth ✅

    At the parent–teacher meeting, Dewey’s lie is exposed publicly when Ned, Patty, and the police arrive. He is judged by the principal, the parents, and the children themselves.

    Resurrection follows later, when the kids wake Dewey in his apartment on the morning of the concert, calling him back into action and purpose.

    The Sun — heart to heart, sincerity ✅

    During the parent–teacher meeting, Dewey is genuinely sincere about how proud he is of his students. He openly admits that he was moved by them — and jokingly adds that he is “pretty sure he touched them.” Humor aside, this is a true heart-opening moment.

    The Hanged Man — illusions crash, action is suspended, new viewpoints ✅

    Once Dewey’s lie is revealed, the illusions collapse and everyone must recalibrate their understanding of the situation. Dewey himself is rendered actionless and stripped of his role. This stands as one of the cleanest Hanged Man moments in a lighthearted comedy.

    The Two Paths (Lovers) — choice, determination ✅

    It is ultimately the children who show determination and choose to continue with the plan, reigniting Dewey’s spark. They sense that the bond between them is sincere.

    At the same time, Ned faces his own Lovers moment. Though Patty tries to hold him back, he chooses to attend the show and stand up for himself. This is true determination in the face of resistance.

    Death — killing of the ego, taking responsibility ✅

    Before boarding the bus to the concert, Dewey apologizes to the children. This is the final step in dissolving his ego — taking responsibility without excuses or deflection.

    The Chariot — uninhibited action, intuition, foresight ✅

    At the Battle of the Bands, Dewey and the kids perform with confidence, joy, and cohesion. Summer naturally assumes the role of band manager, and the group moves forward as an integrated whole.

    The World — reconnection with others and the divine ✅

    Dewey and the children receive love and recognition from everyone — parents, other bands, and even Principal Rosalie. Dewey finally executes a successful stage dive, something that failed during his Empress phase but now works through integration. This completes the symbolic “magical flight.”

    Temperance — ordinary life, but happier and wiser ✅

    The story ends with the School of Rock band practicing together. There is no stardom or fame fantasy, only balance, joy, and sustainable creativity. Temperance is restored.

    Closing reflections

    There you have it — all the archetypes are covered and nearly the entire archetypal sequence is carried by the protagonist himself. If you ever wondered why School of Rock feels so satisfying despite its lighthearted tone, this near-completeness may be the reason.

    Ideally, a single protagonist carries the full archetypal arc, and School of Rock comes remarkably close. The one notable exception is the moment of determination, which is ignited by the children rather than Dewey himself. Ordinarily, such a displacement could weaken the arc, but here it works — not by replacing Dewey’s journey, but by completing it from the outside.

    As a fan of complete protagonist arcs and genuine growth, I found this movie outstanding nonetheless. Dewey’s transformation is deep, sincere, and nearly whole, and the story provides just enough structural support to let that arc land cleanly. Kudos to Richard Linklater and Jack Black for making it work and for allowing Dewey’s character to grow in a way that feels authentic, earned, and joyful.

    Thank you!

    Ira

  • Die Hard (1988): An Archetypal Analysis — Barefoot, Yet Already in the Chariot

    Released in 1988, Die Hard has long outgrown its reputation as “just” an action movie. Frequently cited as one of the most influential action films ever made, it is praised for its tight pacing, grounded protagonist, memorable antagonist, and unusually strong emotional core for the genre. Decades later, it still holds up remarkably well — not because it escalates endlessly, but because it knows exactly what kind of story it wants to tell.

    That makes Die Hard an especially interesting candidate for archetypal analysis. In this article, we will look at the film through a reinterpreted Major Arcana framework — not as a system of symbols or labels, but as a sequence of psychological and existential processes unfolding through story. This approach allows us to learn several things at once: how the Major Arcana operate beneath narrative structure, how effective storytelling manages archetypal timing, where a story could theoretically be improved or reshaped, and how these same patterns quietly mirror processes in our own lives.

    The Major Arcana are what connect fictional stories to real ones. They describe how people move through isolation, choice, imbalance, responsibility, surrender, and reintegration — whether that movement happens on a battlefield, in a marriage, or in everyday life. When a film aligns with these processes, it feels honest and grounded. When it rearranges or skips them, that choice shapes the tone and meaning of the story.

    One of the more interesting findings in Die Hard is that its protagonist does not begin as an archetypal blank slate. John McClane appears to operate from determination and forward momentum almost immediately, suggesting that he enters the story already close to the Chariot state. As a result, his arc is not primarily about transformation, but about endurance, integration, and maintaining humanity under pressure. Several other archetypes — particularly those related to ego inflation and control — are instead distributed among secondary characters.

    With this framework in place, we can now walk through the archetypes as they appear throughout the film, observing how Die Hard achieves such lasting effectiveness by remaining disciplined about what it does — and just as importantly, about what it does not pretend to do.

    Major arcana archetypes in Die Hard

    The Magician — manifestation, potential and will ✅

    When we first meet John McClane, he is carrying a huge plush bear for his kids. This simple image already establishes his potential and manifestation skills, as well as a trace of everyday magic associated with family, care, and warmth. John arrives not as an empty figure in search of purpose, but as someone who already carries meaning with him.

    The Devil — adversary to the Magician, destruction ✅

    John appears uneasy when he arrives, and the reason soon becomes clear. He has had a fallout with his wife Holly over their long-distance relationship. A small but real amount of Devil energy exists between them in the form of distance, resentment, and unresolved tension.

    The true Devil, however, enters the story later. The terrorists violently seize the building, directly challenging the Magician’s will and forcing John into action. Where the marital Devil is subtle and internal, this one is overt, destructive, and external.

    Justice — balancing good and bad, free will and thinking ✅

    Justice represents the subconscious principle that the Magician’s light must be balanced by destructive force in order for free will to exist. The result is the mundane everyday world, largely stripped of magic.

    John and Holly’s fallout is a direct consequence of their free will and the judgments they made about their situation. The terrorists also act from free will, though in a distorted form. Their rise to power can even be read as a mirror of Mr. Takagi’s unspoken fears and doubts — a kind of subconscious Devil that invites its external counterpart.

    The Hermit — isolation, loneliness, wisdom ✅

    Because of the fallout with Holly, John feels an emptiness inside himself. He enters the Hermit archetype, not through deliberate withdrawal, but through emotional separation. From this position, however, he already knows what he wants: to be reunited with Holly and his children. The Hermit here is not confusion, but clarity born from loneliness.

    The High Priestess — object of inspiration ✅

    The oversized teddy bear signals that John draws his inspiration primarily from his children. Holly also belongs to this sphere of inspiration, though her role is partially restrained at first due to unresolved tension. The Priestess is present, but not fully accessible.

    The Lightning — inspiration, changing the course of events ❓

    The Lightning archetype usually appears as a sudden flash of divine inspiration in the middle of mundane life. This does not happen to John. There is no inner awakening or revelatory insight that redirects his course.

    Instead, what occurs is a destructive Lightning — better described as the Tower — when the terrorists abruptly take over the building and shatter the ordinary flow of events. The change is external and catastrophic, not internal and illuminating.

    The Star — hope and wayshower ✅

    Throughout the ordeal, John is guided by his love for Holly and his children. This connection gives him hope and sustains him during moments of exhaustion, fear, and pain. The Star here is quiet and personal rather than visionary or cosmic.

    The Empress — narcissism, premature confidence ✅

    John’s ego is never inflated. He does not take on the terrorists in order to “be the hero.” He is grounded and alert from the very beginning. In fact, he is the hero already, which places him in the Chariot archetype early in the story rather than in Empress inflation.

    To compensate for this missing ego distortion, the film distributes Empress energy among other characters. Ellis, Holly’s arrogant coworker; Thornburg, the intrusive reporter; and the overconfident deputy chief Dwayne T. Robinson all embody narcissism, premature confidence, and naïveté.

    The Wheel of Fortune — ups and downs, embarrassment ✅

    When the terrorists break in, John is caught barefoot. This visually symbolizes that he is still vulnerable and not fully grounded, perhaps due to his unresolved conflict with Holly. Power and exposure coexist.

    All other Empress figures eventually fall from their imagined thrones, meeting embarrassment, failure, or death. The Wheel corrects their imbalance swiftly and decisively.

    The Emperor — control, agenda, domination ✅

    Because John never adopts a mindset of domination or control, the Emperor archetype is outsourced. Hans Gruber embodies it perfectly, attempting to bend reality to his will through planning, authority, and force.

    Strength — aggression, manipulation ✅

    Before the heart is opened and Strength is integrated, the Emperor uses force to serve personal agendas. What cannot be achieved through the heart is pursued through the hands.

    Hans relies on weapons to dominate. John and law enforcement respond with force as well, but John does so reluctantly and always proportionately. This restraint confirms that he has already integrated Strength rather than being ruled by it.

    The Moon — twilight and illusion ✅

    For a long time, no one truly understands what is happening inside Nakatomi Plaza. Firefighters doubt the alarm, and even Sgt. Al Powell initially finds nothing wrong. The events unfolding at night further emphasize the Moon archetype.

    The terrorists do not know who John is, whom he is connected to, or where he is hiding. Their aggressive actions produce only short-term results and are therefore illusory. Even their presence in the building is unnatural and temporary, reinforcing their Moon-like unreality.

    The Hierophant — introspection, truth revealed ✅

    Truth begins to surface when John drops a body onto Sgt. Al Powell’s car, forcing reality into the open. Later, Hans discovers John’s identity and learns that Holly is his wife. Knowledge replaces denial.

    The Hanged Man — suspension of action, new viewpoints ❓

    When the body lands on Al’s car, his illusion that everything is fine collapses. He is forced to see reality clearly. However, because these illusions were not of his own making, he is not pushed into prolonged suspension or deep introspection. The Hanged Man appears only partially.

    The Sun — heart-to-heart, unburdening ✅

    John and Sgt. Al share sincere conversations over the radio. Al confesses that he once shot a child by mistake — a burden he has carried ever since. John later instructs Al on what to tell Holly if he dies. As the heart is unburdened, light is allowed to enter again.

    The Two Paths (Lovers) — determination ❓

    John is determined to do whatever he can to resolve the situation. His determination is symbolized by crossing broken glass barefoot during a shootout.

    However, there is no internal split. John is not held back by fear or doubt, nor does he face a genuine alternative path. The Lovers archetype appears as determination without division.

    Death — killing of the ego ✅

    There is one unresolved burden on John’s heart. He regrets not being supportive of Holly’s new job and asks Al to tell her that he is sorry. This moment represents true ego death.

    At the very end, Sgt. Al Powell also transcends his ego and long-held fear by killing a terrorist, releasing himself from paralysis and guilt.

    Judgement / Resurrection — rebirth ✅

    John is not afraid to express remorse publicly over the police radio and to be judged for it. With ego surrendered, he is reborn into an integrated self capable of intuitive and balanced action.

    Symbolically, John is shown multiple times falling and getting back up, reinforcing the resurrection motif.

    The Chariot — uninhibited action, intuition, foresight ✅

    Typically, the Chariot follows ego surrender, but John displays uninhibited action and intuition from the very beginning. His final act of hiding a gun on his back demonstrates heightened foresight rather than arrogance.

    The World — reconnection with others and the divine ✅

    John is reunited with Holly, who openly reclaims the McClane name. They are welcomed downstairs together, and John’s emotional connection with Sgt. Al Powell is especially strong. Integration is complete at the human level.

    Temperance — ordinary life, but wiser ✅

    John and Holly are picked up by Argyle in a limousine and peacefully drive off into the night. Ordinary life resumes, now informed by experience, humility, and restored connection.

    Closing reflections

    Seen through this archetypal lens, Die Hard reveals a quiet discipline that helps explain why it has endured for so long. The story does not rush its protagonist toward transformation, nor does it inflate his suffering into false transcendence. Instead, it keeps the arc grounded, distributing ego-driven archetypes outward while allowing John McClane to remain largely integrated from the start.

    This results in a narrative where endurance matters more than awakening, and reconciliation matters more than conquest. Archetypes appear not as decorative symbols, but as functional pressures that shape behavior, consequence, and tone. Where the film refrains from forcing growth, it gains honesty. Where it allows surrender to occur, it earns emotional release.

    Ultimately, this is what makes Die Hard a useful case study for both storytelling and archetypal understanding. It shows that a story does not need to complete every transformation to feel whole — it only needs to be truthful about the transformations it does and does not attempt. In that sense, the film quietly mirrors real life: sometimes growth is dramatic, and sometimes it is simply the act of holding together, saying what needs to be said, and returning to ordinary life a little wiser than before.

    Thanks,

    Ira

  • Die Hard (1988): How a Small Change in John’s Attitude After the Terrorist Breach Could Change the Whole Movie

    Die Hard is often praised for its simplicity, clarity, and enduring effectiveness. It doesn’t pretend to be mythic, philosophical, or transformative. It is grounded, physical, and honest about what kind of story it is telling. Precisely because of that restraint, it provides an unusually clean opportunity to explore how one small internal change in a protagonist can radically alter a story’s archetypal trajectory.

    This article is not an attempt to “fix” Die Hard. The film works exactly as intended. Instead, it is a thought experiment: what would happen if, at one critical moment, John McClane’s inner attitude shifted slightly — even for a few seconds?

    The Original Moment: Action Without Ego

    In the finished film, when terrorists seize Nakatomi Plaza, John McClane does not consciously decide to become a hero. He does not inflate, posture, or proclaim responsibility. He reacts. He hides. He survives. His decision to run upstairs barefoot is not a statement of confidence, but a consequence of circumstance. There is no time to prepare, no time to reflect, and no illusion of safety.

    Archetypally, this places McClane very early into Chariot energy: forward motion under pressure, will without fantasy, action with full awareness of cost. Because the action is imposed rather than chosen, the story becomes one of endurance and integration, not growth through error.

    This is why McClane does not need to learn humility later. He never claimed mastery in the first place.

    The Hypothetical Change: A Moment of Premature Confidence

    Now imagine a single alteration.

    After witnessing the breach, McClane pauses — briefly — and thinks something like:

    “I’ve trained for this. I can handle it. I’ll take care of it.”

    A flicker of premature confidence. A subtle internal inflation. A self-assigned heroic role.

    He then chooses to run upstairs — not because there is no alternative, but because he believes this is the correct, decisive action.

    Nothing else changes. Same building. Same terrorists. Same plot.

    But archetypally, everything changes.

    The Archetypal Shift: From Chariot to Empress

    With that internal shift, McClane no longer begins in the Chariot. He begins in the Empress shadow: expansion without grounding, confidence without support, identity outpacing reality.

    The barefoot run upstairs now becomes symbolic overreach — power assumed without protection. In this version of the story, the famous glass-in-the-feet moment would no longer be “unavoidable pain,” but a Wheel of Fortune correction. The universe responding to imbalance.

    Pain would now teach a lesson, not merely exact a toll.

    What the Story Would Become

    With this single change, Die Hard would transform into a different kind of movie:

    • McClane would need to shed his self-image as the one who can handle it.
    • His suffering would function as archetypal correction, not attrition.
    • Later victories would carry the meaning of earned humility, not persistence.
    • The ending reconciliation would feel like growth completed, not stability restored.

    In short, the film would gain a visible character arc — but it would lose something else.

    What Would Be Lost

    That “something else” is realism.

    The original Die Hard works because McClane never lies to himself. He knows he is underprepared, exposed, and vulnerable. His humanity is preserved precisely because he does not romanticize his role.

    By introducing premature confidence, the story would become more mythic, more instructive — and less grounded. McClane would shift from man trapped in crisis to hero learning a lesson.

    That is not a flaw. It is simply a different story.

    Why This Thought Experiment Matters

    This is why the change is so instructive.

    With one small internal adjustment, we learn:

    • how choice vs. constraint defines archetypal arcs
    • how Empress → Wheel creates visible growth
    • how starting a hero in the Chariot limits transformation but preserves realism
    • why some films feel “deep” while others feel “honest”
    • and how archetypes are not decorations, but timing mechanisms

    The original Die Hard chooses containment over transformation — and it is disciplined enough not to pretend otherwise.

    Closing Reflection

    This thought experiment does not argue that Die Hard should have been different. It shows that archetypal clarity always comes at a cost, and that great films often know exactly which cost they are unwilling to pay.

    Sometimes, the most valuable lessons in storytelling come not from rewriting entire plots, but from imagining what would happen if a character believed — even briefly — that they were more than the situation allowed.

    That single belief is often the difference between growth and endurance.

    Thank you,

    Ira

  • Couples Retreat (2009): An Archetypal Analysis — A Quietly Complete Arc

    Released in 2009, Couples Retreat is a studio comedy built around a deceptively simple premise: four long-term couples attend a luxury relationship retreat in hopes of fixing what has quietly gone wrong. On the surface, the film promises light humor, awkward therapy sessions, and tropical escapism. Underneath, however, it stages something far more interesting — a rare, almost complete traversal of the Major Arcana as lived psychological processes rather than symbolic labels.

    In this analysis, we will look at Couples Retreat archetypally. Not to assign Tarot cards to characters, but to observe how inner processes unfold through story. Approached this way, archetypes become tools for understanding storytelling mechanics, diagnosing where narratives succeed or fail, and — unavoidably — learning something about ourselves. Stories rarely break because of bad intentions; they break when necessary inner transitions are skipped, rushed, or replaced. When a film unexpectedly gets the sequence right, it becomes instructive.

    Relationships are a particularly fertile ground for archetypal failure. Couples form for many reasons, but they often don’t last because they stall in early archetypes. There can be infatuation in the Empress phase, where one or both partners become self-absorbed or disengaged from the world, eventually leading to instability and embarrassment in the Wheel of Fortune. There can also be outright manipulation in the Emperor–Strength dynamic: one partner over-managing the relationship, convincing, gifting, seducing, or guilt-tripping the other into commitment. “You don’t love me.” — “Yes, I do.” As we know, manipulation inevitably produces illusion, and illusion quickly exposes problems masquerading as love.

    Because Couples Retreat follows four already-formed couples, we could say that each of them is individually somewhere in the middle of their own archetypal journey. The archetypes are already in play before the story begins. Yet the retreat itself functions as a new, collective narrative — a shared container in which the full sequence can unfold. For the sake of clarity, the analysis therefore begins from the start of the arc. And because these are established relationships, a recurring dynamic emerges: more often than not, the man carries the Magician’s frustrated will, while the woman embodies the High Priestess as lost or inaccessible inspiration.

    With that frame in place, we can now walk through the archetypes as they appear — not as symbols to decode, but as processes that succeed, distort, collapse, and occasionally resolve.

    Major arcana archetypes in Couples Retreat

    The Magician — potential, will and manifestation ✅

    We meet four couples, each of them perfectly capable of leading their lives. They have potential; however, they are not properly inspired. Their energy is mundane and borderline boring. Dave and Ronnie’s child, Kevin, actually expresses this at one point with the line: “This is so boring.”

    The Devil — adversary to the Magician ✅

    The Devil works in covert ways to oppose the Magician and balance out his light into boring nothingness. This is what happens when a person fills their life with things they think they “should” do instead of what they “want” to do. In other words, the Devil drags them in the wrong direction through obligations and unconscious contracts.

    Justice — balancing good/bad and free will ✅

    This balancing of light with its opposite, producing nothingness, is the working of the Justice archetype deep in our subconsciousness. The effect is a state where a person loses proper contact with their soul and internal drive and is forced to make decisions on their own. This is what we call free will — or the Law of Confusion.

    The Hermit — isolation, disconnection ✅

    When a person loses contact with their true self because of this balancing process, they feel all alone inside, even if they are surrounded by others. This is the Hermit archetype, and it can surface even in the middle of a relationship.

    Jason and Cynthia can’t get pregnant, which leaves them feeling existentially empty and alone.

    The High Priestess — inspiration, mystery, possibility ✅

    From the point of view of the Hermit, inspiration is the most potent force. Jason and Cynthia become inspired by the mysterious retreat in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

    Others are also impressed by the presentation, but seem more or less dragged along. They may get inspired later, once they arrive on location. You decide.

    The Lightning — inspiration / idea ✅

    Jason and Cynthia get the idea that they will reinvigorate their relationship at the retreat. This does come true — but not in the way they planned.

    The Star — hope, faith and wayshower ✅

    The idea of repairing their relationship drives Jason and Cynthia forward. The Star is the remnant of inspiration: it gives hope through the downfalls, shows the way forward, and builds confidence in the process.

    The Empress — inflated ego, selfishness, premature confidence ✅

    After the initial inspiration, we don’t see inflated ego in its fully narcissistic sense. However, the story still provides opportunities for premature confidence.

    After the first dinner, Dave seems a little puffed up: “So we give up a little bit of our day to talk about feelings. How hard could that be, right?” This is inflation without malice, which is why the film stays comedic rather than cruel.

    Joey, meanwhile, is hyped about Eden East and the San Diego dancers.

    The Wheel of Fortune — ups and downs, embarrassment ✅

    After the couples are all hyped up at dinner, the story delivers a downturn. On the beach, they are instructed to undress. Shane arrives without underwear, setting the tone of embarrassment — a key property of the Wheel of Fortune.

    Joey is also embarrassed when the house service guy suspects him of masturbating.

    The Emperor — control, agenda, managing ✅

    Marcel, the “couple’s whisperer,” embodies the Emperor, seeing control as the path toward improvement. Stanley shares a similar mindset, keeping couples confined to Eden West.

    Jason mirrors this energy. He believes he must get his relationship under control — which does nothing but annoy Cynthia.

    Strength — frustration, aggression, micromanagement, lies ✅

    Before Strength is integrated and balanced by the heart, it manifests in distorted forms. Before the heart opens, frustration takes over.

    Jason tries to micromanage Cynthia in an attempt to repair their relationship. At one point, he becomes so frustrated with the therapist that he angrily points a hypothetical gun at his own head.

    The Moon — twilight and illusion ✅

    Trying to manipulate life into place produces nothing but illusion. Jason and Cynthia’s relationship therefore becomes illusory.

    Shane is also hiding from Trudy the fact that he can’t keep up with her.

    Fear itself is an illusion. The scene in which Dave is left in the water with sharks symbolizes this. Water represents libido, so the scene reflects Dave’s lack of confidence in his libido — and consequently, in his relationship.

    The Hierophant — truth revealed, surfaced, told ✅

    Marcel reveals a number of truths about relationships and love.

    After the yoga session in the cold room, the men begin to open up to one another, while the women do the same in the sauna.

    First, Trudy admits she is tired of Shane’s “senior citizen bullshit” and leaves him.

    Then, on the boats, Cynthia leaves Jason.

    Later, Stanley is revealed to be just as much of a tech geek as Dave.

    The Hanged Man — illusions crash, action is suspended ✅

    After Trudy leaves Shane, the group is forced to view things from another perspective and regroup. They embark on a journey to find her.

    After Cynthia leaves Jason, his illusion that the relationship is working completely collapses. He is left hanging on the beach with the guys, forced to imagine a life without Cynthia. At first, he is still frustrated and has learned nothing — but his action is suspended long enough for Death to become possible. This is precisely the function of the seemingly silly Guitar Hero scene.

    Symbolically, the women view the island from another perspective as well and discover the waterfall, which they were unable to visit with the men.

    The Sun — opening up, sincerity, heart to heart ✅

    Cynthia admits to her girlfriends that her marriage might be over. They open up in return and offer genuine emotional support. The men, meanwhile, continue to banter more superficially, though some sincerity still emerges.

    Later, at the party in Eden East, Dave sincerely admits to Ronnie how he has been feeling.

    Shane’s wife, Jennifer, surprises him at the party. Their conversation is sincere, and they eventually reconcile.

    Joey punches Salvadore and makes up with his wife.

    Jason and Cynthia also manage to reconcile.

    The Two Paths (Lovers) — determination, choice, rejection ✅

    Dave is determined to keep his marriage. He chooses fidelity and rejects other women at the party.

    Jason is determined to stand up for himself when Marcel tries to silence him during the final session. Symbolically, he expresses that he has discovered the proper way to love — the way of spontaneity and surrender, rather than control.

    Death — killing of the ego ✅

    Jason never openly apologizes to Cynthia for micromanaging her or for his frustration. However, he does openly accept her wish to end the relationship. It feels as though his ego dies together with the relationship itself.

    Resurrection — rebirth ✅

    After Jason accepts the death of the relationship, he has an honest conversation with Cynthia, and their relationship is reborn passionately.

    The Chariot — uninhibitedness and restored intuition ✅

    Jason and Cynthia, now unburdened by their former selves, act quickly and instinctively, making love back at their house.

    The final jet-ski scene represents this regained freedom.

    The World — reconnection with others and the divine ✅

    Jason and Cynthia reconnect with their true selves and with divine love. They are applauded and rewarded by Marcel.

    The other couples also welcome this renewed energy and are invited to symbolically conquer the sea (libido) together on jet skis.

    Temperance — ordinary life, but happier ✅

    As the story ends on the jet skis, Dave receives a phone call from ordinary life: his son Kevin and his grandfather back home, doing the usual things — now met with greater balance and ease.

    Closing reflections

    What makes Couples Retreat quietly remarkable is not any single revelation, but the fact that nothing essential is skipped. The film does not treat relationships as problems to be solved or behaviors to be corrected. Instead, it allows disconnection, embarrassment, illusion, and loss of control to play out without rushing toward repair. In doing so, it demonstrates something most stories avoid: that resolution cannot be manufactured, only permitted.

    The most instructive moments are also the least dramatic. When action is suspended and progress appears to stall, the story resists the urge to substitute insight with intensity. This pause is not narrative weakness but structural discipline. It creates the conditions in which surrender can occur without being forced, and where reconciliation, if it happens, is no longer an act of control but a consequence of letting go.

    Equally important is what the film does not glorify. Authority, technique, and performance are all shown to be inadequate substitutes for integration. Improvement arrives only after the need to manage the relationship collapses. Choice, when it finally emerges, is understated and personal — not a declaration of love, but a decision to stop acting from illusion.

    That is why the ending does not feel like a triumph, nor like a reset. Ordinary life resumes, but with less friction and fewer defenses. Nothing external has been radically transformed, yet something essential has settled into place. In allowing that quiet completion, Couples Retreat becomes an unexpected example of how a story can feel resolved without being loud — and why, sometimes, the most honest arcs are the ones that simply stop interfering.

    Thanks,

    Ira

  • Fight Club (1999) — An Archetypal Analysis: The Momentum of the Negative Chariot

    Fight Club arrived at the end of the 1990s as a provocation disguised as a cult film. Initially misunderstood and underappreciated, it gradually earned its place among the most discussed films of its era—not because it offers answers, but because it asks numerous questions about the ways of men, masculinity, agression, its potential benefits and pitfalls. What at first looks like a story about rebellion and liberation slowly reveals itself as a far darker examination of control, escalation, and the cost of refusing surrender.

    At first glance, Fight Club appears difficult to approach archetypally. Its central device—a fragmented psyche—can feel like archetypal disorder itself. Yet when viewed through a reinterpreted Major Arcana model, informed by the Law of One and focused on archetypes as psychological processes rather than symbols, the film becomes surprisingly precise. Archetypes are not missing, but some are however distorted, accelerated, or prematurely accessed. Death appears ways before determination, strength replaces surrender, and momentum stands in for integration.

    This analysis follows the film step by step through the Major Arcana to understand what Fight Club is actually doing beneath its surface intensity. Lets move through the archetypal sequence and see how Fight Club becomes a rare example of a story that is not about awakening, but its opposite.

    Major arcana archetypes in Fight Club

    The Magician — potential, will and manifestation ❓

    We never learn Edward Norton’s character’s true name, which is why we refer to him simply as the Narrator. From the very beginning, the Narrator demonstrates a will to endure his life, but he shows no particular potential, craft, or skill that would normally define the Magician archetype. He does, however, manifest a well-furnished, IKEA-decorated apartment. Yet this form of manifestation is ultimately irrelevant to the story, as it reflects consumption rather than authorship.

    The Devil — adversary to the Magician ✅

    Opposition is implied through the Narrator’s mundane and uneventful life, marked by chronic insomnia and a reality where meaning is flattened into objects. This is the work of the Devil archetype, which balances out the Magician’s magic by neutralizing vitality itself. In a more concrete sense, the Narrator’s boss also functions as a localized adversary within this dynamic.

    Justice — balancing good and bad, free will ✅

    The Justice archetype represents the perfect balancing of good and bad perception, creating the conditions for free will. The Narrator is free to choose between paths, and this freedom becomes critically important later in the story, as his choices gradually escalate into extremity.

    The Hermit — isolation, loneliness, individuation ✅

    These conditions inevitably push the Narrator into the Hermit archetype. He experiences the world as something completely separate from himself, accompanied by a profound sense of inner emptiness and isolation.

    The Lightning — inspiration, idea ✅

    From this Hermit state, the Narrator gets the idea to attend support groups. His motive is false, but within these groups he experiences brief flashes of love and emotional release from other attendees. Love functions here like lightning — a sudden disruption of the nothingness of everyday life.

    The Empress — inflated ego, selfish indulgence ✅

    Encouraged by this experience, the Narrator begins attending multiple support groups based on deception. While his ego does not visibly inflate in a traditional sense, his behavior reflects the Empress archetype in its unintegrated form: premature confidence, ignorance, and falseness. He pursues emotional pleasure selfishly, without responsibility.

    Death, Judgement, Resurrection — ego transcendence ✅

    In this exceptional archetypal ordering, the Narrator experiences small, temporary doses of ego transcendence and rebirth. Within the support groups, he symbolically “dies” and is reborn through emotional release. This breakthrough takes time, as it is initially hindered by an internal sense of being judged. However, these archetypes are typically accompanied by the Two Paths — determination toward a chosen direction. Because the Narrator lacks such determination, the process collapses the moment Marla appears.

    The Wheel of Fortune — ups and downs, embarrassment ✅

    A fall on the Wheel of Fortune can only occur when a person attempts to be someone they are not. The Narrator is thrown off rhythm when he encounters Marla Singer, another support-group attendee who introduces randomness and the threat of exposure. As a result, he feels embarrassed and loses his ability to cry. Later, in another moment of misfortune, his apartment explodes, further accelerating the turn of the Wheel.

    The High Priestess — inspiration, mystery, possibility ✅

    The Narrator clearly perceives mystery in Marla, yet she appears too much of a “bad seed” for him to recognize her as a source of inspiration. Although a beautiful woman often carries High Priestess energy by default, the Narrator cannot receive it from her. Instead, Marla later fulfills this role for Tyler Durden, who weaponizes her mystery. After Justice introduces free will, the High Priestess offers inspiration toward both good and bad paths. For the Narrator, it is ultimately Tyler who mediates and presents this archetype.

    The Star — hope and wayshower ✅

    At first, the Narrator is guided by the hope of self-improvement — becoming tougher, more confident, and alleviating his health issues. Subtly, he wishes to be more like Tyler. Through Tyler’s influence, the Star begins to point not toward healing, but toward domination.

    The Emperor — control, agendas ✅

    When Marla disrupts the Narrator’s support-group routine, he enters Emperor mode, attempting to control her out of his reality. Gradually, he becomes Tyler, who already embodies a fully formed Emperor archetype, complete with an agenda to assemble an army and impose control over society.

    Strength — aggression, manipulation, theft, vandalism ✅

    Before Strength is integrated to confront the ego, the Emperor uses it to serve personal agendas. Fighting, which dominates the film, becomes the primary outlet for frustration with the world. Over time, this escalates into theft, vandalism, and eventually acts of terrorism.

    The Moon — twilight and illusion ✅

    The true twilight experienced by both the Narrator and the audience revolves around the question of who Tyler Durden really is. At the same time, the effects of aggression and manipulation are inherently short-lived and illusory. Fight Club quickly mutates into Project Mayhem, which can only ever produce temporary and illusory change in the world.

    The Hierophant — truth revealed ✅

    Although the story provides numerous clues, the Narrator learns the truth about his condition very late, through a conversation with a man at a bar during his travels, followed by a chaotic phone call with Marla.

    The Hanged Man — illusions crash, action suspended ✅

    The Narrator realizes that Tyler is part of him — that they are the same person. His illusions collapse, forcing him to see reality from the correct and inverted viewpoint.

    The Sun — heart to heart, sincerity ❓

    At this stage, the Narrator could and arguably should confess his schizophrenia to Marla — admitting that he does not remember the periods when he is Tyler. This never happens. He attempts to say something but fumbles, suggesting that the omission of this archetype is a deliberate narrative choice. While he does confess Tyler’s plans to the police and partially unburdens himself, this remains a confession without genuine vulnerability.

    The Two Paths (Lovers) — determination for good or bad ✅

    The Narrator becomes determined toward truth and what he perceives as the good path. Tyler, however, is already committed to the negative path and the continuation of illusion. In the end, the Narrator chooses violence as the means to eliminate Tyler, seeing no alternative. By choosing violence, he effectively becomes Tyler.

    The Chariot — uninhibitedness and restored intuition ✅

    The Chariot archetype forms the backbone of the film. From their first meeting, Tyler Durden operates within a negative Chariot: everything comes easily to him, he is confident, and he is unwaveringly committed to aggression and destruction. He effortlessly rallies followers, demonstrating the power of an uninhibited will. Near the end, the Narrator becomes determined to dismantle Tyler’s plans, enabling him to confront Tyler directly. Yet he never fully reaches a positive Chariot; Tyler consistently overpowers him.

    Death — killing of the ego ❌

    There are no apologies, no forgiveness, no surrender, and no assumption of responsibility. The ego is never addressed. Although there is a symbolic death when the Narrator shoots himself in the head, this does not constitute true ego death.

    Resurrection — rebirth ❌

    After surviving the gunshot, the Narrator stands up and behaves like Tyler. Since no ego death occurs and no genuine internal change takes place, this cannot be considered a true resurrection, even symbolically.

    The World — reconnection with others and the divine ❓

    At the end, Tyler reconnects with Marla while the world collapses exactly as he planned. He does exert influence over the world, but only in a negative and illusory sense. He is already well connected to others who share his worldview, and the recurring subliminal image of the male sexual organ suggests that Tyler remains alive. However, because this outcome is achieved through the negative path, Tyler never truly reconnects with the divine within himself or with humanity at large.

    Temperance — ordinary life, happier and wiser ❌

    Temperance never arrives. We do not see the characters return to an ordinary, balanced life — there is no peaceful integration, no quiet wisdom, and no “happily ever after.”

    Closing reflections

    At first glance, this analysis may seem difficult to approach, since the story revolves around a mental disorder which might mirror some kind of a archetypal disorder. And in a sense, that intuition is correct. The film does contain archetypal disorder: the Narrator is already experiencing small, simulated ego deaths at the very beginning of the story through the support groups. That early exposure to Death and Resurrection feels unusual and it raises an important question: was this coincidence, or an intentional distortion of the archetypal sequence?

    The analysis seemed also difficult since the Narrator begins as a meek and underdeveloped Magician, and his Empress and Emperor archetypes are difficult to identify early on. Yet by the end of the film, those archetypes are unmistakably present and fully expressed, guiding the narrative cleanly into Emperor and Strength territory.

    One of the more revealing discoveries is how little archetypal transformation actually occurs through fighting itself. The fights do not bring wisdom, balance, or integration, even thought that was speculated by the Narrator. It turnes out that their primary function is to cultivate Strength through violence, aggression, and endurance. But when accumulated strength would eventually culminate to deal with the ego, in the Narrator’s case it culminates in the ability to shoot himself in the head.

    This is where this archetypal framework can truly clarify the ending of Fight Club. To choose a final polarity, one path must be relinquished. In symbolic terms, it must be “let go” — or, as the story frames it, killed off. This logic is reflected in the original Lovers card called “The Two Paths”, where a man stands between two women, one representing virtue and the other vice. He cannot keep both. A choice must be made, and one must be abandoned. The Narrator abandons the virtuous one.

    The film shows us what happens when that choice is made at the point where ego death should occur. Choosing the negative polarity means doubling down on Strength, control, and manipulation precisely at the moment when surrender is required. This is exactly what we witness. Death and Resurrection are not integrated — they are bypassed. The gunshot is not an ego death, but a consolidation of power through violence.

    In that sense, the film is archetypally honest. It does not pretend that destruction leads to integration, or that force leads to wholeness. It shows, with consistency and clarity, what the negative path actually looks like when followed to its conclusion. That honesty is precisely why the story resonated so strongly with audiences and why it continues to be regarded as one of the most influential films of its era. Fight Club does not offer transcendence — it offers a truthful depiction of what happens when transcendence is refused.

    Thank you,

    Ira

  • Mrs. Doubtfire (1993) — An Archetypal Analysis: Was Daniel’s Incomplete Arc Intentional?

    Mrs. Doubtfire is often remembered as a warm, fast-paced family comedy, powered by Robin Williams’s improvisational brilliance and an affectionate portrait of parental love. On the surface, it feels lighthearted and reassuring — a story about devotion, creativity, and the lengths a parent might go to remain close to their children. Yet revisiting the film with some distance reveals that its emotional impact runs far deeper than its comedic tone suggests. Beneath the laughter lies a story that is surprisingly painful, morally complex, and archetypally unstable in ways that linger long after the credits roll.

    What gives the film its enduring power is not that it resolves its conflicts cleanly, but that it doesn’t. Mrs. Doubtfire consistently places its characters in situations where sincerity, love, and manipulation coexist uncomfortably. Moments that appear playful on the surface often conceal deeper questions about responsibility, truth, and avoidance. This tension is what makes the story hit harder with age: the comedy remains, but the cost of the choices becomes impossible to ignore.

    In this article, the film is examined through a reinterpreted Major Arcana model, influenced by Law of One material, where archetypes are understood not as symbolic decorations but as psychological and spiritual processes. By tracing how these archetypes appear, stall, or are intentionally bypassed, we can learn not only about the structure of Mrs. Doubtfire, but also about storytelling itself — how certain emotional effects are achieved by delaying or softening transformation rather than completing it.

    Several key observations guide the analysis that follows. The story opens with a surprisingly clean archetypal setup, establishing creativity, inspiration, loss, and reaction with clarity. However, as the narrative moves forward, later archetypes such as Death, Judgement, and full integration remain perhaps deliberately underdeveloped. This choice shifts the weight of the story away from explicit resolution and toward a subtler, more felt ending. With these ideas in mind, we can now move through the film step by step, following the archetypal sequence to see how Mrs. Doubtfire achieves its lasting emotional resonance.

    Major arcana archetypes in Mrs. Doubtfire

    The Magician — potential, skill, will and manifestation ✅

    We meet Daniel doing what he does best: being a voice actor, recording voice — singing, rather — to voice over a cartoon. It is a small, private production, but it nevertheless presents a proper image of the Magician archetype: creative, expressive, and full of potential, yet not fully integrated into a stable or responsible form.

    The Devil — opposition to the Magician ✅

    When Daniel attempts to add something to the story from his heart, he is immediately opposed by the producer. His creative will is challenged and constrained, illustrating the Devil archetype as resistance to authentic expression rather than overt temptation.

    Justice — balancing good and bad, free will ✅

    The sense that the Magician’s energy must be balanced runs deep in our subconsciousness. When magic is neutralized and evenly balanced, ordinary and uneventful life appears. These conditions, however, are precisely where free will can be experienced. Daniel is faced with a choice: to listen to his soul or to his employer. Exercising free will, he decides to quit his job.

    The Hermit — isolation ✅

    After quitting his job, Daniel is symbolically left to himself. For a brief moment, we see him alone, driving in a car. Life periodically places us in the position of the Hermit, because from that perspective inspiration can become more potent. Later, Daniel enters the Hermit archetype more deeply through his separation from his wife.

    The High Priestess — object of inspiration, possibility ✅

    It quickly becomes clear who represents inspiration for Daniel — the force that gives him energy to endure life. It is his children. He repeatedly states that he cannot live without them, that they are like oxygen to him. For Daniel, inspiration is externalized so completely that he becomes dependent on it.

    The Lightning — inspiration, revelation ❌

    In this interpretation, the Lightning represents a sudden revelation of the divine breaking into everyday life and changing the course of events. That moment never arrives in this story. Daniel already knows where his inspiration lies and which direction he wants to go. There is ignition, but no revelation.

    The Star — hope and wayshower ✅

    Daniel’s children embody the Star archetype. They give him hope when he is down, and the idea of being with them again and again becomes the guiding light behind his actions.

    The Empress — inflated ego, selfishness, ignorance ✅

    Daniel is, however, ignorant in his ways. He loves his son so intensely that he throws him an extravagant birthday party, nearly bringing the house down. More importantly, he behaves as though everything revolves around his love for his children, leaving Miranda completely out of the picture. This is the selfish and unintegrated expression of the Empress archetype.

    The Wheel of Fortune — ups and downs ✅

    It is obvious and inevitable that Miranda will not be pleased with Daniel’s behavior or the party. Events quickly spiral out of control. She decides to divorce him and does not change her mind. Fortune turns against Daniel, and the shift is decisive.

    The Emperor — control, agenda ✅

    Following this downfall, Daniel concludes that he must bend reality to his will, put things under control, or in other words, control his fortune. One reality he absolutely refuses to accept is the presence of Stuart in Miranda’s life.

    Strength — lies, aggression, manipulation ✅

    In this reinterpretation, Strength refers to the means by which the Emperor attempts to control reality before learning the ways of the heart. Daniel chooses lies and manipulation, disguising himself as a housekeeper in order to re-enter his former home and be with his children. In this role, he relentlessly manipulates Stuart, Miranda’s new partner, attempting to remove him from the picture entirely.

    The Moon — twilight and illusion ✅

    Manipulation always produces only illusory and temporary results. Daniel manipulates reality, and as a consequence his ex-wife and his children are placed in a twilight state, believing things that are simply not true.

    The Hierophant — truth surfaced, revealed, told ✅

    The first time truth slips from Daniel’s control occurs when his son Chris catches him standing in front of the toilet. Later, at the “last dinner,” Daniel sits falsely before Jonathan, the TV producer, and escapes exposure only by lying further and presenting Mrs. Doubtfire as his new show concept. Eventually, his mask comes off entirely when he attempts to save Stuart from choking — a direct consequence of his earlier manipulations. Notably, every instance of truth in this story is accidental rather than chosen.

    The Hanged Man — illusions crash, action is suspended ✅

    The illusion of who Mrs. Doubtfire really is collapses first for Chris and his sister Lydia, forcing them to stop and re-evaluate reality from a new perspective. Later, the same suspension occurs for everyone else as the truth fully emerges.

    The Sun — heart to heart, sincerity ❓

    At the courthouse, Daniel opens up and delivers a heartfelt testimony. Yet he remains desperate and not fully sincere. He attempts to justify his actions by pleading emotional instability and overwhelming love for his children, begging that they not be taken away from him. Warmth is present, but clarity is incomplete.

    The Two Paths (Lovers) — determination ❌

    At no point does Daniel demonstrate true determination for truth. It is only bad luck that strips him of his mask; he never chooses honesty of his own accord.

    Death — killing of the ego ❌

    Daniel never apologizes to Jonathan for deceiving him, nor does he apologize to Miranda for manipulating her perception of reality and of Stuart. He also never forgives Miranda for receiving custody of the children, even throwing this fact in her face near the end. Ego is exposed, but never relinquished.

    Judgement / Resurrection — rebirth ❌

    Because Daniel never passes through ego death by apologizing, forgiving, or taking responsibility, he is not reborn into a genuinely new self. By the end, he appears embarrassed and uncertain, rather than transformed.

    The Chariot — uninhibitedness and restored intuition ❌

    Daniel does receive a new television gig with Jonathan, building a show around Mrs. Doubtfire, and he performs well in it. However, because this success is rooted in a lie for which he never apologized, his heart remains burdened. Ego still exists, and this cannot be considered a true Chariot moment.

    The World — reconnection with others and the divine ❓

    Daniel does partially reconnect with Miranda and the children, but the resolution feels off. Miranda’s reasoning centers on the children missing Mrs. Doubtfire, not on reconciliation with Daniel as a whole person. Connection occurs through the persona, not through integrated truth.

    Temperance — humility, ordinary life, happier and wiser ❓

    Miranda allows Daniel to spend two hours a day with the children after school, even though this goes against the court order. The children seem happy again, and Daniel does as well, while Miranda remains quietly unsettled. Daniel’s final television message as Mrs. Doubtfire is humble and wise, suggesting that this may have been intended as an indirect apology — and perhaps the limited form of balance the story ultimately aims to reach.

    Closing reflections

    Viewed through this archetypal lens, the story begins with remarkable clarity and confidence. The early archetypes are cleanly established and emotionally grounded, allowing the narrative to unfold in a way that feels both playful and meaningful. As the film progresses, however, several later archetypes remain noticeably underdeveloped. Rather than completing the full sequence, the story seems to slow, soften, and deliberately avoid certain thresholds.

    At first glance, this can feel like a structural weakness. Daniel never apologizes to Jonathan, the producer, for deceiving him about why he was dressed as a woman, yet he is still rewarded with the television gig. The same absence appears in the courtroom scene, where a clear opportunity for a direct apology presents itself, but is not taken. Truth is spoken, emotion is expressed, yet accountability is carefully sidestepped. Ego is revealed, but not explicitly relinquished.

    And yet, the more one sits with the film, the more this omission begins to feel intentional. Had Daniel moved cleanly through apology, forgiveness, and ego death, the ending might have resolved too neatly. Instead, the story leaves later archetypes partially open, allowing a different kind of resolution to emerge. Daniel’s final television message as Mrs. Doubtfire is humble, wise, and quietly compassionate. It carries the emotional weight of an apology without ever naming it directly.

    In this light, the underdevelopment of the later archetypes serves a purpose. By withholding overt transformation, the film allows the ending to land not as a lesson, but as a felt experience. The apology is not spoken; it is embodied, indirect, and gentle — and paradoxically, that restraint gives it more power. The moment works because it respects the tone of the story and the humanity of its characters.

    Ultimately, Mrs. Doubtfire proves to be far more archetypally aware than it first appears. Its refusal to complete the sequence cleanly can’t be seen as a failure, but a stylistic choice that prioritizes emotional truth over structural perfection. The result is a film that remains funny, tender, and deeply affecting — one that understands that healing does not always arrive through declarations, but sometimes through presence, care, and a wisdom that quietly speaks for itself.

    Thanks,

    Ira

  • American Beauty (1999) — An Archetypal Analysis: A Delayed Wheel or a Premature Chariot?

    American Beauty is a late-1990s suburban drama that quickly became known for its unsettling honesty. Praised by some as a sharp critique of middle-class emptiness and criticized by others for its moral ambiguity, the film has endured precisely because it refuses clear heroes, clean transformations, or comforting resolutions. Desire, rebellion, control, and collapse are all presented without telling the audience how to judge them.

    Beneath its realistic surface, the story functions like a modern myth. Its characters move through inner psychological states rather than simple moral choices, and much of the film’s discomfort comes from the fact that growth is partial, delayed, or interrupted, while avoidance is allowed to persist far longer than expected.

    In this article, American Beauty is examined through the lens of the Major Arcana, understood not as fortune-telling symbols, but as archetypal processes that describe the unfolding of will, identity, and consciousness. This approach helps us learn how the Major Arcana operate as a sequence, where the story consciously fulfills or withholds certain archetypes, and how those choices shape the narrative. At the same time, it offers a mirror for our own lives, where momentum is often mistaken for integration and rebellion for freedom.

    Several conclusions will guide the analysis that follows. Lester’s journey is not a clean awakening but a late ignition of dormant energy that bypasses key stages of integration. Colonel Fitts provides a contrasting path, showing how determination without surrender hardens into destruction. Most importantly, the film demonstrates that insight alone does not guarantee wholeness, and that missing archetypes can be just as instructive as those that appear. With this in mind, we can now move through the story archetype by archetype and see what American Beauty ultimately reveals.

    Major arcana archetypes in American Beauty

    The Magician — potential, will and manifestation ❓

    Usually when we first meet the protagonist, we are introduced to their wishes, desires, and skills, which together constitute their potential. However, Lester is completely disheartened from the very beginning and hardly has any spark left in him. There is no visible sense of will, curiosity, or creative impulse. This appears to be the consequence of constant opposition from the Devil archetype, an opposition he apparently never overcame, resulting in his potential being neutralized before it could properly manifest.

    The Devil — opposition to the Magician ✅

    It is implied that Lester has endured opposition throughout his life to such a degree that his original spark has been balanced out almost completely. The Devil here does not operate through temptation or excess, but in covert ways, slowly turning magic into boredom and vitality into routine. A small but telling example is the moment when Lester and his wife briefly reconnect, only for the spark to be immediately extinguished by Carolyn’s fear that he might spill beer on the couch, completely ruining what could have been a magical, spontaneous moment.

    Justice — balancing good and bad, free will ✅

    The sense that light must be balanced runs deep in our subconsciousness. When magic is neutralized and overly balanced, an ordinary and uneventful life emerges, one in which free will can exist. The underlying question becomes who to listen to — God or Devil, inspiration or fear. Throughout the movie, it is evident that Lester is making choices that slowly but surely move him away from the Devil’s numbing influence, even if those choices are not yet integrated or mature.

    The Hermit — isolation, loneliness ✅

    When the spark of the Magician is balanced out, the individual begins to feel cut off from the world, isolated on the inside. This is the Hermit archetype, and it is where Lester begins the story. Despite having a job, a wife, and a daughter, he feels empty and disconnected, living in isolation while surrounded by people.

    The High Priestess — inspiration, mystery, possibility ✅

    It is actually difficult to find a clearer representation of the High Priestess in this story than Angela, at least from Lester’s perspective. In her, he sees mystery and possibility. The uninspired Magician with dormant potential suddenly feels alive again, not because truth is revealed, but because possibility has returned.

    The Lightning — inspiration, idea ✅

    The High Priestess’s beauty strikes Lester’s heart like a bolt of lightning. He becomes properly inspired and feels alive again. After eavesdropping on Angela and Jane’s conversation, this inspiration translates into action, motivating him to take care of his body and reclaim a sense of vitality.

    The Star — hope and wayshower ✅

    The Star is usually the residual light left behind by the Lightning. Because Angela seems open to him, Lester clings to the idea that they might eventually be together, and this hope becomes the guiding force that drives him forward.

    The Empress — inflated ego ✅

    Lester’s ego becomes clearly inflated. He begins behaving irresponsibly, smoking pot, blackmailing his boss, and indulging in the feeling of being above consequences. Angela herself represents another form of the Empress archetype, inflated by her beauty and openly lying about her sexual experience. Carolyn, Lester’s wife, also resides in the Empress archetype, expressing it through status, productivity, and external success rather than sensuality.

    The Wheel of Fortune — ups and downs ❌

    Lester does not experience meaningful downturns after blackmailing his boss, smoking pot, or generally acting beyond his former limits. Although this is presented as a deliberate plot device, it is important to point out its archetypal absence: there is no corrective swing of fortune.

    Angela on the other hand is eventually humiliated by Ricky for her vanity, but this moment is of only minor importance to the overall structure of the story.

    The Emperor — control, discipline, structure ✅

    Because Lester’s life begins to run smoothly without the need to impose control, the Emperor archetype is externalized through his neighbor, Colonel Fitts. Fitts is hell-bent on discipline and rigid structure, particularly in the way he controls and dominates his son.

    Strength — lying, aggression, manipulation ✅

    Unintegrated Strength manifests as aggression and coercion, and this is the primary tool of the controlling Emperor. Colonel Fitts uses guns as symbols of force and power while hiding a deeply repressed secret. Lying becomes another form of forcefully manipulating reality; Ricky, for example, lies to his father about how he earns money. These deceptions are not isolated incidents, as various forms of dishonesty permeate the film.

    The Moon — twilight and illusion ✅

    Forcefully manipulating reality can lead only to illusion. Lester hides his feelings for Angela from Carolyn. Carolyn conducts an affair that is emotionally hollow and illusory, keeping it secret from her husband. Angela lies to Jane about her sexual experience. Colonel Fitts misinterprets his son and Lester as being in a homosexual relationship. Under the Moon, perception replaces truth, and fear fills the gaps left by silence.

    The Hierophant — truth revealed ✅

    The Hierophant is not interpreted here as a moral authority, but as a truth-teller. This archetype first appears when Lester, working his new job at the drive-through, unexpectedly spots his wife with her lover. It appears again when it is revealed that Colonel Fitts is gay, something he has been openly and violently opposed to. Finally, at the climax of Lester’s arc, Angela lies half-naked before him and sincerely admits that it is her first time.

    The Hanged Man — illusions crash, action is suspended ✅

    Colonel Fitts realizes the truth the hard way: Lester is not gay. His illusion collapses, leaving him humiliated and paralyzed as he walks back home, suspended in shame and inner conflict.

    The Sun — heart to heart, sincerity ❓

    After Angela’s confession, she and Lester share an honest conversation. Her heart is unburdened, and sincerity finally enters the scene. However, Lester does not fully reciprocate by exposing deeper truths of his own. Instead, his attention shifts toward concern for his daughter, leaving the moment only partially fulfilled.

    The Two Paths (Lovers) — choice, determination ✅

    The Star that is Angela drives Lester toward determination, motivating him to become a better version of himself and follow a positive path.

    In contrast, Colonel Fitts also reaches a point of determination, but chooses the opposite direction, doubling down on aggression and ultimately killing Lester in an attempt to protect his ego. These two paths illustrate the divergent outcomes of the same archetypal pressure.

    Death — killing of the ego ✅

    Lester brings his ego into check when he chooses not to sleep with Angela after learning it would have been her first time. He releases the fantasy that fueled his rebellion. Colonel Fitts, however, is unable to pass through ego death.

    Judgement / Resurrection — rebirth ✅

    For a brief moment after the encounter with Angela, Lester appears reborn. When she asks how he is, he sincerely answers, “I’m great.” He looks at a photograph of his family with a renewed perspective, momentarily seeing life without resentment or illusion.

    The Chariot — uninhibitedness, clarity and intuition ❓

    After being inspired by Angela, Lester moves with apparent ease, as though life suddenly flows for him, almost as if he were already riding the Chariot. However, this movement lacks integration; he advances through momentum rather than mastery.

    It is worth pointing out that those who reach Chariot on the negative path remain inhibited and their intuition remain dormant. This is where Colonel Fitts ultimately ends up.

    The World — reconnection with others and the divine ❌

    There is no opportunity for Lester to reconnect with a partner who could mirror his newfound clarity, nor is there any symbolic confirmation of lasting wholeness or reconnection with life.

    Temperance — ordinary life, but happier ❌

    Because Lester dies, there is no opportunity for him to integrate his transformation into ordinary life. The story ends with insight, but without the chance to live beyond it.

    Closing reflections

    What ultimately lingers after the story concludes is the unresolved question of consequence. How did Lester manage to act irresponsibly for so long without having to visibly pay a price before reaching his higher self? Was the absence of immediate consequence a flaw in the narrative, or was that absence itself intentional so that eventual cost would be greater? The film does not answer this directly, and perhaps it shouldn’t. These are questions each viewer must answer internally, based on their own understanding of growth, responsibility, and timing.

    Structurally, the arc of Colonel Fitts stands out as an essential counterpoint. At the precise moment where ego death is offered, the story makes it unmistakably clear that Fitts cannot go through with it. Faced with truth, exposure, and the collapse of his constructed identity, he chooses violence instead. In doing so, he does not merely fail an archetype — he deliberately skips it. This does not weaken the story; on the contrary, it reinforces a central principle. Those who commit to a negative path often bypass archetypes associated with truth, ego death, judgement, and resurrection altogether. The absence of these stages is not a narrative omission, but a reflection of that choice.

    Taken as a whole, American Beauty remains remarkably faithful to its archetypal structure. Where archetypes are missing, their absence is intentional and meaningful. The film does not offer comfort through integration or reassurance through resolution. Instead, it presents insight without aftermath, awakening without continuation, and clarity that arrives just as life ends. In that sense, the story is less a promise than a mirror — and for that reason alone, it remains well worth revisiting.

    Thanks,

    Ira